


Watching You Stand Alone

by FireMane15



Category: Titans (TV 2018)
Genre: F/M, One Shot, Post-Season/Series 02
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-07
Updated: 2021-02-07
Packaged: 2021-03-12 14:00:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,703
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29261628
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FireMane15/pseuds/FireMane15
Summary: Why didn’t she tell him?He has so many questions. So many thoughts. So many feelings. But that’s the one thing he keeps coming back to.Why didn’t she tell him?/Dick finds out about the Blackfire situation. But not from Kory.
Relationships: Dick Grayson/Koriand'r
Comments: 7
Kudos: 34





	Watching You Stand Alone

Why didn’t she tell him?

He has so many questions. So many thoughts. So many feelings. But that’s the one thing he keeps coming back to.

Why didn’t she tell him?

It’s the thought that goes through his head the entire way back to the tower after their encounter with Kory’s sister. The sister that she never told him about. 

She’s a princess.

And he does _not_ have the ability to process that right now.

They finally arrive at the loft, and congregate in the common room. Kory starts explaining everything to the team, filling in the gaps of what their encounter revealed. 

Dick stands off to the side, arms crossed.

Why didn’t she tell him?

Dick looks around at everyone else, trying to get a sense of what they’re feeling. He sees mostly surprise and sympathy. No anger.

Why aren’t any of them angry? At least a little bit?

Of course, he’s not only angry. He’d be a real asshole if he was only angry at her. He feels sad for her. He wants to comfort her, to wrap her up in his arms and make her feel like everything’s gonna be okay. But then, that reminds him that this isn’t something she just recently found out. The news of her parents murder at the hands of her sister, the loss of her crown aren’t new to her. It’s only new to them. 

This doesn’t stop him from wanting to offer her his comfort. And it doesn’t mean that she still doesn’t need it. He knows from experience that that’s not true. But the point is that it’s not fresh, and that’s what allows his anger to come front and center.

Why didn’t she tell him?

He thought - He thought that they were close, that they had some...connection. But she didn’t tell him. Not about her sister. Not about her parents. Not about her being royalty.

And it fucking _stings_.

And maybe...maybe it’s not anger that’s overtaking him, but rather hurt.

* * *

Kory finishes explaining. And everyone, but him, offers her their sympathies, and vows to help take down Kory’s sister.

Dick interrupts, the first time he’s spoken in a while, since they’ve got back to the tower.

“We should all get some rest,” he says. As soon as he starts speaking, Kory’s eyes flash nervously to his. “We’ll start coming up with a plan in the morning.”

Everyone sees it for what it is, a dismissal, and takes their leave. Except for Kory, who stays in the common room, as everyone filters out. She must know that he wanted to talk to her alone. That his dismissal was just a way to get that to happen.

Now, it’s just the two of them. Standing there. In silence.

Even though everyone’s gone, the common room still doesn’t feel private enough.

“Could we go talk on the roof?” he asks her.

* * *

As soon as they open the door to the roof, a strong breeze hits them. He walks further onto the roof, and she follows behind him cautiously. He looks out over the city for a few moments. It’s just starting to get dark. The sun is going down. And there is just the beginning of a sunset.

He tears his eyes away from the sky and turns to face Kory.

“When did you know?” he asks, his voice emotionless, giving nothing away.

“Do you remember when I told you I had loose ends to take care of? After you told everyone about Jericho?”

He gives her a stiff nod.

“Then.”

That was over a month ago. A fucking month. When she’s been silently suffering. When she’s been dealing with all this shit all by herself.

“Were you ever going to tell me?” he asks, unable to stop a little bit of hurt from making its way into his voice.

“Yes. I would have never have left the team unprepared. I thought I had more time. I didn’t think she’d come this fast. I didn’t even know she was coming herself. I thought she’d send others. You’re right to be angry. Someone could have gotten hurt. I...miscalculated. I should have told you guys before. It would have stopped the team from being ambushed, unprepared and unaware,” Kory tells him.

Dick’s taken aback by this answer. 

This is why she thinks he’s angry?

This didn’t even occur to him. It should have, he realizes. As the leader, he should probably be thinking about her nondisclosure from this angle. But he’s not.

Because he’s not speaking to her as the leader of the Titans right now, even though Kory seems to think he is. 

No, he’s not angry at her as a leader, he’s angry at her as a...a...friend? For some reason, describing her as a friend seems strange, off. Even though, they definitely are friends. It just sounds wrong. He doesn’t know why.

But, this talk, his anger, has nothing to do with their relationship as Titan and Titans’ leader. It has to do with their personal relationship.

And he is so taken aback by Kory not realizing this. 

Maybe... Maybe they’re not as close as he thought they were. Maybe their connection was all in his head, if she’s kept things from him and thinks he’s only upset about it because it put the team at risk.

“You were only ever going to tell me because you _had_ to?”

Dick can’t conceal the anger in his voice.

Now, Kory’s the one who looks taken aback. And he can see her realize, realize what he’s actually upset about.

“I...I,” she struggles for words.

“Why didn’t you tell me? Don’t you trust me?” 

“No!” she exclaims.

Everything slows down. He feels like he’s being strangled. Like all the air has been sucked from his lungs. He feels like someone is repeatedly punching him, in the heart, in the stomach, in the chest.

Fuck, it hurts. He doesn’t think there is anything that her, or anyone, could say that could hurt more than that.

She doesn’t trust him.

It’s only a few seconds, but his mind races.

She doesn’t trust him. She doesn’t trust him. She doesn’t trust him.

How can she not- he thought...

And then he thinks of him leaving her, leaving her and Rachel and Gar after the asylum. He thinks of leaving Gar and Connor in the tower alone. He thinks of all the times he’s run. Of course she doesn’t trust him. When has he ever shown her that he could? It’s not her fault, for not telling him. It’s his.

His fault. His fault. His fault. His faul-

“No,” Kory says again, slightly panicked. “No, I meant ‘no, that’s not the reason,’ not ‘no, I don’t trust you.’ I do trust you. More than anyone.”

Dick feels like he can breathe again. He feels all that sadness, hurt, and self-loathing leave his body. Like he’s taking one long exhale after holding his breath for too long.

She does trust him.

But that only brings him back to his earlier anguish.

“So then why didn’t you tell me? I asked you multiple times. ‘Are you okay?’ ‘Is something wrong?’ ‘Is something going on with you? Each time you lied to me. Why?”

“I didn’t want to ruin things for everyone.”

“What do you mean?” Dick asks confused.

“Well, at first, it was because so much had happened. You, and everyone, were dealing with Donna’s death, and still reeling with everything that happened with Deathstroke. I didn’t want to add to that. To give you guys more to deal with when you already were dealing with so much,” Kory tells him, before taking a pause.

Dick goes to inject, to tell her that he’s never dealing with so much that he can’t be there for her, but she starts talking again before he can.

“And then things started to look up. Things were relatively calm, everyone was doing better. I didn’t want pile on another impending crisis when we had just got out of the last one. Not until it became necessary. And you, you seemed to be doing so much better. You seemed more at peace than I’ve ever seen you. I couldn’t ruin that for you. You, more than anyone, deserved a break. I didn’t want to burden you with all my shit.”

All the anger leaves his body. But it’s replaced with a sharp pain in his chest. She shouldn’t have felt she had to do that. It’s too much. For anyone. Even someone as strong as Kory.

“So you carried the burden,” he tells her empathetically. “carried all that pain, and grief, and anxiety. Alone. With no one to help you. Or comfort you. Or even know that you were in pain. Just silently suffering, while all of us got a break.”

Again, too much for anyone. He wishes she would have burdened him.

“Well, if being a princess has taught me anything, it’s how to sacrifice my wellbeing and desires for the good of my people.”

She says it playfully, but he can hear the pain that lurks beneath it.

It’s not fair. It’s too much to ask of anyone. Too much weight for one person’s shoulders.

Dick takes a few steps closer to her, getting in her personal space.

“You don’t have to do that here,” he tells her. “Especially with me.”

She takes that in for a few moments, before nodding.

“Okay.” she says softly.

“I mean it. If you have problems, have a burden that you have to carry, I want to help you carry it. I don’t care what else is going on, or if yeah, it upsets me or makes me worry. If you’re in pain, I want to know. I want to help. Always.”

Dick stares intently at Kory as she visibly swallows.

“That’s...Thank you,” she tells him,. “I will.”

She seems not to know what else to say.

But right now, they don’t need words. They look at each other, and Dick can tell that they both feel it, both get it, that they’re in this together, and have been since the day they met.

And now, they’re both gonna start acting like it.


End file.
